Mental Fatigue and Spatial References Impair Soccer Players' Physical and Tactical Performances

Abstract

This study examined the effects of mental fatigue and additional corridor and pitch sector lines on players' physical and tactical performances during soccer small-sided games. Twelve youth players performed four Gk+6vs6+Gk small-sided games. Prior to the game, one team performed a motor coordination task to induce mental fatigue, while the other one performed a control task. A repeated measures design allowed to compare players' performances across four conditions: (a) with mental fatigue against opponents without mental fatigue in a normal pitch (MEN), (b) with mental fatigue on a pitch with additional reference lines (#MEN); (c) without mental fatigue against mentally fatigued opponents on a normal pitch (CTR); and (d) without mental fatigue on a pitch with reference lines (#CTR). Player's physical performance was assessed by the distance covered per minute and the number of accelerations and decelerations (0.5–3.0 m/s2; > −3.0 m/s2). Positional data was used to determine individual (spatial exploration index, time synchronized in longitudinal and lateral directions) and team-related variables (length, width, speed of dispersion and contraction). Unclear effects were found for the physical activity measures in most of the conditions. There was a small decrease in time spent laterally synchronized and a moderate decrease in the contraction speed when MEN compared to the CTR. Also, there was a small decrease in the time spent longitudinally synchronized during the #MEN condition compared to MEN. The results showed that mental fatigue affects the ability to use environmental information and players' positioning, while the additional reference lines may have enhanced the use of less relevant information to guide their actions during the #MEN condition. Overall, coaches could manipulate the mental fatigue and reference lines to induce variability and adaptation in young soccer players' behavior.

Exploring the effects of mental and muscular fatigue in soccer players’ performance

“…In the present investigation, the physical activity profile during the SSG were lowest following mental fatigue condition. These results are contradictory to those found in previous reports that analyzed the player's physical performance when mentally fatigued during SSG (Badin et al, 2016;Coutinho et al, 2017). While in this study both confronting teams were mentally fatigued, in turn, in these previous studies there was only one team mentally fatigued.…”

“…In this regard, a field study showed that mental fatigue impaired technical but not physical performance during soccer game-based situations in youth players (Badin et al, 2016). More recently, Coutinho et al (2017) used a motor coordination task to induce mental fatigue and analyzed how players physical and movement behavior was affected by the mental fatigue. While no effects were found in the physical variables, the team movement behavior results showed decreases in movement synchronization and in positional adjustments such as speed of contraction, when mentally fatigued.…”

Mental fatigue as a conditioner of the tactical and physical response in soccer players: a pilot study

“…Regarding the effects of mental fatigue on the possible indicators of tactical performance, a recent study by Coutinho et al [15] investigated the effects of mental fatigue on players' capability to coordinate team movements. the authors induced mental fatigue by a motor coordination task and observed some decrements on the team's behavioural synchronization: lateral synchronization, dispersion, and contraction speed.…”

“…Although the results did not display negative effect on the physical performance of the players, such as acceleration, number of sprints, and distance covered, the authors found a negative impact of mental fatigue on technical actions as passing and tackling. More recently, Coutinho et al [15] observed mental fatigue effects on indicators of collective behaviours in small-sided games. Mental fatigue caused decrements in the team's synchronization behaviours such as lateral synchronization, dispersion, and contraction speed.…”

“…Despite the indications of negative effects of mental fatigue in physical, technical, cognitive, and collective behaviour performance in soccer [8,10,14,15], investigation is necessary to identify possible influence of mental fatigue on tactical performance. Hence, interaction of tactical and physical aspects in this condition is also unknown.…”